- A couple of follow-up notes to my prior post. Whywhywhy (Mr. Greeley) is standing stud at Gainesway for $7500. Juvenile Grade 1 Winner Ranked Above EMPIRE MAKER on the Experimental Free Handicap! proclaims the blurb on his Stallion Register page. That’s probably because Empire Maker only raced twice at two, winning a maiden race and running third in the Remsen, to Toccet, while Whywhywhy was more precocious, running five times and winning three graded stakes, including the early season Flash. No mention, of course, of the fact that the colt was a flop at three, with a lone third place finish from four starts.

A hotel owner in Sugar Land, Tex., has been charged with submitting $232,000 in bills for phantom victims. And roughly 1,100 prison inmates across the Gulf Coast apparently collected more than $10 million in rental and disaster-relief assistance.

There are the bureaucrats who ordered nearly half a billion dollars worth of mobile homes that are still empty, and renovations for a shelter at a former Alabama Army base that cost about $416,000 per evacuee.

And there is the Illinois woman who tried to collect federal benefits by claiming she watched her two daughters drown in the rising New Orleans waters. In fact, prosecutors say, the children did not exist.

On a rare bright note, the Times reported yesterday that tax revenues in Louisiana are projected to reach record levels this year, providing a much-needed boost in the state’s coffers. The boon is attributed mostly to sales taxes on goods purchased as replacements for those lost to the flooding. However, there was another, more unexpected factor.

James A. Richardson, a professor of economics at Louisiana State University, said one of the biggest surprises had been how strong gambling revenue had been. At riverboat casinos, state data show, there have been fewer gamblers, but they have lost far more money ($22 million more in April this year than in the previous April).

Some Louisianans may have pumped their federal aid into video poker machines and slots. But Professor Richardson said he thought much of the gambling was done by out-of-state workers who flocked to the Gulf Coast after the hurricanes.

"You couldn't go to a restaurant without running into an insurance adjuster," he said, "and there were not many things for them to do in their spare time." [NY Times]

There’s a captive audience for you I guess. And it’s not the first time we’ve read about this phenomenon there; there was a steady stream of reports late last year of booming business at Fair Grounds’ OTB operations that reopened last October; enough, in fact, for Churchill Downs to have increased purses at last year’s Fair Grounds meet at Louisiana Downs to an average of approximately $370,000 per day, the largest ever for a meet in Louisiana. I guess this is a reminder that gambling is one of the vices that people sometimes turn to in times of despair. Or when they’re shamelessly ripping off the government (and the rest of us) for aid money.

8 Comments:

Walter
said...

...i'm looking forward to the start by Long Range Missile @ Prairie Meadows a bit later today...8/1 on the morning line (don't ask me how), and when i looked at the Form yesterday, their little Sweep/Graded Handicap line had him rated dead last @ 12/1...meanwhile, 3 of the 4 public handicappers in the Form are picking him to win...as i was looking over his worktab, i noticed that a number of his drills are spaced very far apart, 15-20 days or so...but his last 3 or 4 drills have come 6-7 days apart, as you would hope...further, i noticed that his trainer is showing 10 starters on the "+180 days" category...he's won with HALF of them...so that certainly bodes well for Long Range Missile, who was last seen going 1:07 4/5 at Santa Anita in October of 2004...it also bodes well that this is a $30,000 optional claimer, and he's NOT entered for the claiming price...obviously he's not his former self, but he must not be a lost cause either...i'm not gonna go crazy or anything, but i do plan on betting him today...of course, it's more likely he'll be 8/5 than 8/1, but we'll see...

...he ended up paying $3.60???...when i walked in with about 4 minutes to post, he was 2-5...he then dropped to 1/5 and stayed there until the race started...i guess one of the others must've gotten some late action or something...

...incidentally, as Bank Check noted, Long Range Missile stumbled pretty badly at the break and spotted the field about 2 lengths...he gathered himself quickly though and rushed up to take command...he must've been two lengthsa in front after the first quarter...the race was never really in doubt after that, although Long Range Missile wasn't finishing particularly well...but hey, he was gone nearly two years and resurfaced at Prairie Meadows, so i guess that was to be expected...we probably won't be seeing him at the Breeders Cup...